Free From Him
by nesting-seraph
Summary: Ryou thought he was free. But he was wrong. It seems that no-one is free anymore...
1. An Abrupt End

**Welcome to the updated version of Free From Him! If you're new, enjoy. If you're old, I hope it's an improvement!**

* * *

It was a while before Ryou realised it was over.

It was a few days after his return from Egypt. Average day, overcast, windy. The same as always, except for one thing: the Ring.

It lay, glinting, on his bedside table, next to the family photographs and general clutter; almost as if it belonged there. Ryou couldn't stop glancing at it as he dressed, expecting it to glow suddenly and to feel the constricting hands on his soul, feel his mind being crushed, hear the Thief's voice in his ear.

"_You didn't think I had forgotten you, did you?"_

No. Ryou sighed. He didn't think that. He didn't think it for a minute.

But today he felt different. Like an immense weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt free.

For the first time in six years, he wasn't afraid.

Of course, there was the feeling of shame. The guilt of letting the Thief control him, lead him. His soul had been weak, he told himself. He'd tried to convince himself that he was not to blame, and that the Thief was nothing but a distant memory now that he was gone. They weren't related. The spirit of the Ring was gone, the Ring was just a Ring, and Ryou was just a normal person. With his own soul.

Sometimes, though, he could have sworn he felt the empty space in his mind where the Thief's soul had once been.

Ryou shook the thought off and continued dressing. The same striped shirt, blue jeans, the Ring... Ryou stopped, feeling it in his hand, heavy on its string. Despite its apparent innocence, it was still compelling, its gleam seeming too bright for the dull day, its golden surface flawless, the five needle-sharp points hanging and clinking together with an almost inaudible chime.

Irresistible.

Ryou slipped it around his neck, feeling its familiar caress with such a wrong feeling of relief that he almost tore it off again. It was cold. He waited, feeling his shoulders instinctively clench upwards, his eyes shutting against the expected mental onslaught.

Nothing.

Bittersweet, but liberating.

_Why am I wearing it, again?_

_..._

_Never mind. It doesn't matter. _

Ryou sighed and left his room, closing the door carefully behind him. He slowly made his way down the stairs, glancing briefly at the photographs hanging on the wall above the banister. They showed his family whole, his mother and Amane displayed proudly as if they were still here, and they brought a dull ache to Ryou's chest. That was why he never looked up, he recalled. He hadn't been able to make the decision for a while. The phone next to the front door was bleeping, so he picked it up.

'_You have two messages.'_

"_Ryou, it's only me. Just checking up on you, I'm sure you're fine. I'll phone again tonight. Erm... Bye."_

His father. A fool, easily misled by Ryou's faux cheery emails. Or, on a few occasions, the Thief's.

"_Hey, Ryou! It's Yuugi. Do you wanna come down to the shop tonight? Joey says we should have a Zombie Invasion III marathon, and it won't be the same without you. You should get out of the house more. See you at school!" _

Ryou allowed himself to smile as he replaced the phone. Everything was back to normal.

* * *

It was cold. Ryou wasn't surprised at that; winter in Domino was always accompanied by bitter winds and snow, but he'd grown accustomed to the feeling of the Egyptian sun beating down on him and hadn't yet adjusted to the Domino winter chill. As he walked, he was blissfully aware of how normal everything was. Kids on their way to school shrieked and ran up and down, being chastised by their parents, dogs barked, the shops were full of people chattering and browsing the shelves, in their own little worlds...

_Rather than a world full of ancient Pharaohs, tomb keepers and __**demons**__. _

Ryou took his usual shortcut through the park, rubbing his gloved hands together. He couldn't wait until tonight; he would actually be able to choose what to eat!

_This is my chance. This is my one chance to start again. I can forget. Forget Marik, forget the Pharaoh, forget the Thief, forget everything. I can go back to school. I'll throw the Ring away. I'll burn it. This is the last time I'll ever wear it. In five minutes I'll be at school. I'll be talking to Yuugi like I did before all of this. I'll look people in the eye without hearing __**him**__ tell me what he'll do them when I'm asleep. I'll think without being interrupted. I'll..._

Ryou felt his heart sink_. I'll be all alone. _

"Help! Help! HELP!"

A little girl came crashing out of the bushes and straight into his path, screaming blue murder, her yellow coat covered in leaves, her auburn hair full of burrs, her knee smeared with mud from when she'd fallen in her haste.

"Oh, mister. Please help!" She looked up to him with teary, desperate eyes. Ryou felt a jolt in his stomach, immediately springing to the child's aid.

"What's wrong?"

"This way." She turned back and disappeared the way she'd come. Ryou followed, the thorny bushes tugging at his jeans, the frosted grass crunching under his favourite shoes. They came to a huge lake, which most people didn't bother to visit at this time of year; in the summer, it was a beautiful place. When the sun withdrew, it sank into eerie silence, bare limbed trees reaching out over grey water.

The girl turned to face him, eyes pleading. Ryou looked out onto the lake, and then saw the problem.

The lake was frozen, after days of sub-zero temperatures, and another kid was standing out on it. A little boy, well wrapped up in a matching yellow coat, tiny boots firmly planted on the dull ice – a thin barrier which was all that stopped him tumbling into a pool of deadly, ice-cold water.

"My little brother, there was a cat. He chased it out onto the ice, and now he won't come back... he won't listen to me, please help..." The girl was speaking to him in panicky tones, but Ryou didn't hear it. All he could see were the boy's eyes. They were utterly blank. Staring. He vaguely remembered the mind slaves of Marik Ishtar. That was the last time he'd seen eyes like that.

_Five minutes in, and I'm back in the game. _

"Hey, what's his name?"

"Samuel... but we all call him Sam..."

Ryou started edging his way out onto the ice. The ice near the edge of the lake was thick, but near the centre, it was much thinner. Ryou knew it wouldn't take his weight. Still, he kept going.

"Sam! Come here, please."

The child turned his head, but remained horribly sightless, arms hanging limply, blue mittens still wrapped on tiny fingers. Ryou shuddered. He took a step further. The child, bizarrely, took a step away from him.

"Hey! This isn't funny!" Ryou snarled, looking around for anyone who looked like they could be behind it. The lake was deserted and silent, except for the girl and her cries of "Be careful!"

Ryou took another step, feeling the ice shift ever so slightly beneath him. A raven screamed nearby.

Suddenly, Sam was there. The eyes lit up, his face changed from slack to terrified in a split second. Sam ran.

"Stop!"

The ice groaned. Every time Sam's feet hit the ice, Ryou could see him falling in, but seemingly instantly and almost inexplicably, Sam was at the other side of the lake, his little legs carrying him quicker than Ryou had thought possible.

_He's safe. Everything's fine..._

Then Ryou heard it. That horrible, high pitched, screeching, aching moan as the ice split beneath his feet and a chasm of black, churning water appeared, yawning hungrily.

Ryou had felt fear before. The heart thump when you realise you've said the wrong thing. The stomach lurch when you lean too far back on your chair. The disgust when you see dozens of red ants crawling across your jeans. But none of those feelings could compare. Not even the fear he'd felt of the sadistic thief, or of himself and what would he would do next. Where he would wake up the next morning, covered in a stranger's blood.

He was paralysed. The terror rushed straight from his racing heart to every corner of his body as the ice shattered and he fell into the water, diamond-like droplets exploding from the gaping hole. The little girl screamed. Ryou tried to, and felt freezing water fill his mouth; press itself against his body like some cruel mockery of a hug, caress his face with cold, numbing fingers. Ryou sank like a stone. Seeing the light fade, Ryou recalled his earlier feeling.

That feeling, that incredible, _hopeful_ feeling that everything could change.

It wasn't meant to be. Subconsciously, he'd known it, even at the moment he thought he was free, that very morning while he was relishing in his new life, he'd known.

It was cold, and Ryou could feel himself slipping away.

And away...

And away...

And...

A...

...

* * *

The Millennium Ring glowed an eerie yellow as the ambulance arrived, staining the water green where Ryou lay in the silt, his lifeless body barely distinguishable from the rocks and other paraphernalia littering the bottom of the lake, his drifting hair like weed, his eyes closed. He was dragged from the water by the paramedics, who didn't bother checking his vitals. They could tell just by the temperature of his ghostly, dripping arms, the way he lay limp on the shore, that he was dead. Ryou was no more alive than any of the bleeping machines that were there, ready to try and keep people that way.

"He never stood a chance," one of the nurses said sadly to a colleague as she filled in some forms. "A waste, a terrible waste."

The school was told in an hour, and the students were stunned into silence. The teachers threw out his books. A few of the girls cried.

Ryou's father was told in two, over a crackling telephone line to Libya, where he was excavating an old temple. He thought it was a prank at first.

The whole of Domino knew within a week. The newspaper had a little obituary for him.

_Bakura Ryou, a local student, dies in a tragic accident after falling into a frozen lake. He will be missed by all who knew him._

A few limp bunches of flowers were left by the lake where Ryou had drowned.

The little girl was never seen again.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! :D**

**Any chance of a review? **

**x Kal277 x**


	2. A New Beginning

**Chapter 2, at last! I'm sorry for the extremely long wait. Thanks for coming back! **

* * *

_Akefia felt his neck burn. He woke up and lay still, eyes closed. Something tugged at the edge of his consciousness. _

_**Thief...**_

_**Thief...**_

_**My Thief...**_

_Akefia opened his eyes a little, squinting into the dark, and at first he noticed nothing untoward. The usual useless soul room clutter. But suddenly, it was there. A long-haired, slender, beautiful figure that he remembered... _

_He recoiled and heard its hiss of annoyance._

"_Akefia..." it whispered urgently, leaning in close, and placing a cold pale hand on his arm spoke those fateful words: _

"_I got him at last."_

* * *

The first thing Ryou noticed was that the ground was warm. And hard. And perfectly flat.

_How weird._

His eyes were shut, but he could feel heat on his eyelids, see the faint light seeping through.

Ryou waited, apprehension building. He didn't want to see where he was, for fear that it wouldn't be what he expected.

Then he mentally berated himself for being so ridiculous, and his coffee eyes opened wide, reflecting the scene before him.

A contorted maze of stairs and passages, gleaming gold with dark shadows in all the crevices. A bizarre scene of metallic beauty, in which Ryou felt as vulnerable as a rabbit in the headlights.

A shadow shifted, and Ryou felt his heart leap into his mouth. He jumped to his feet, watching the grey form twist and move, becoming smaller and clearer by the second. There was a slight tapping sound...

Ryou stared, his heart pounding in his ears as he prepared to run, or scream (if possible, in a manly way).

He'd never been more relieved than he was when a black paw appeared and he knew exactly what to expect.

He felt himself relax, breathed a sigh of relief, and moved to greet the jet black cat which stood a few metres in front of him.

"Oh, hello! What are you doing here, eh?" Ryou knelt and reached out to stroke its head, where two huge gold eyes glittered, their sliver of black beautifully shiny and simple.

The cat gave him a look of utter disdain, its tail flicking irritably back and forth.

Ryou dropped his hand, slightly embarrassed at being rejected by a _cat_.

"Right. So you're not in the mood? I can understand that..."

_Obviously, I've subconsciously decided to continue acting like a lunatic. _

Ryou scuffed his feet together, looking down at the strange floor beneath them with fascination. The cat turned and strutted off.

"Hey... wait!"

The cat paused and looked back over its glossy shoulder, as if to say 'You coming, or what?' After momentarily questioning his own sanity, Ryou set off following it, which he soon realised was rather difficult.

The cat was obviously a local, because it immediately set off up a set of gold stairs, barely glancing at its surroundings. Ryou on the other hand was fascinated by the architecture of the place, and found that the cat would disappear if he spent too long gawking and he'd have to run after it, lost for a few seconds until he found it, lounging in the shade and probably thinking how stupid he was.

Ryou was uncomfortably aware of how loud his footsteps rang, echoing, throughout the beautiful caverns. He wondered whether his less than subtle appearance would rouse anything more sinister than a lost household pet.

After a long, confusing journey, the cat reached what looked like a dead end; a precipice not unlike a diving board which hung over what looked like nothingness; a great black gaping void. Ryou was slightly alarmed by the depth of the drop.

_How big is this place?_

The cat walked right to the end of the protrusion, and stepped right over it. Ryou jumped in alarm and ran forwards, but the cat appeared able to defy gravity, as there was no mewl of surprise and no cat falling towards the rift below. Ryou paused.

_If it can do it, so can I. _

Ryou stepped over the edge, and felt his stomach flip; he saw the entire golden web turn around him. He took a few shaking steps forwards, as his mind adjusted to the idea of walking upside down, but the right way up.

_What the hell is going on here...?_

He ran a hand through his hair as he searched for the cat. He was considering calling for it as he walked between two high golden walls. Looking up, he saw dozens more paths, bridges and staircases.

_If I were to get lost in here..._

Ryou shuddered at the idea. He turned left at a crossroads after a childish game of Eeny Meeny to decide his path. The cat was sitting just there in front of him, watching as if it had known he would turn up eventually. His heart stuttered with relief, and then he looked ahead.

And there, suddenly, laid out on the golden steps in front of him, was the very person Ryou thought he'd escaped.

* * *

The Thief.

The Spirit of the Ring.

_No. _Ryou felt his hands start trembling.

The cat sprang up and, almost smugly, bounded over to perch itself on Akefia's bare stomach, ears pressed back to its head, tail coiled in as if it had done him a favour. The Thief's hand lifted to stroke its midnight fur, the gold bangles he wore jangling. Ryou recoiled slightly, his heart pounding furiously in fear; it appeared he was trapped.

Trapped again.

That was when the Thief opened his silver-grey eyes, and saw Ryou for the first time in a long time. Something like surprise flitted across his face; the slanted eyes widening slightly, but the expression was brief; his face soon settled into a much less appealing look.

"Oh. It's you," he said, yawning widely and scrutinising Ryou. It was amazing, he thought, what a few days of freedom could do for a soul. Ryou's had been a decimated and cowering thing the last time he'd seen it. Now it exuded all the intelligence and shy assuredness of his human form, which had hidden his mutilated mind perfectly for many years, concealing the horror with a disarming beauty.

Ryou sighed.

"Send me back."

The Thief's expression was unfathomable. "What, you think I'm responsible for this? I'm offended." His deep voice was different somehow to the one Ryou remembered.

The one which had taunted him for years before this moment.

"I don't care what kind of twisted game you want to play with me. I want to go home," Ryou repeated, feeling anger and misery rising inside him with equal force.

_He has no right to treat me like a toy, like his little marionette. Is he always going to be here, pulling the strings? _

"You can't. Or rather, I can't send you there."

"I know it was an illusion! You think you can just do what you like, but you can't!" Ryou was truly angry now. The Thief could lie, cheat, take over his mind, but this was a step too far. Faking his death was crossing the line.

The Thief opened his mouth, like he was about to speak, but he apparently thought better of it and closed it again.

Ryou clenched his fists, feeling his nails dig into his palms. It was rare he considered using violence against somebody, but he was _this _close...

"I know you're lying. I understand how your twisted mind works," Ryou spat.

"You understand very little, clearly. If you understood me, you would know that, given the choice, I would have you as far away from me as possible."

"Well, why am I here then?" Ryou yelled, beyond the point of caring how much he annoyed the Thief.

"Because you died," Akefia said irritably, folding his arms. He was already bored of listening to his host's interrogation, and his neck was burning once again.

Ryou's eyes widened as he took in what the Thief had said.

"So I'm really...dead?" Ryou blinked confusedly, disbelievingly. The word didn't feel right on his tongue, didn't sound right as he considered it as a potential _state _for himself.

"Yep."

The nonchalant response was so blunt, and so painful.

"But... I don't understand...why... huh?" Ryou looked to the Thief, almost desperately, his eyes searching for something, anything, that would prove he was lying.

"People die every day, Yadonushi," Akefia said scathingly. "Trust me, you aren't the first."

"But...why?" Ryou said, sounding close to hysterical. "I...I'm... I tried so hard! I never..." Ryou trailed off pathetically, his eyes filling with tears.

"You think only the wicked die? Pah. You think only the lazy, the ignorant, the weak die? The good aren't immortal, you know."

_It was real. It was all real. I just lost my last chance._

"Now why don't you just get lost?" Akefia waved his hand dismissively. Ryou looked from the Thief to the floor, then to his own trembling hands. He began to walk away, but he only made it a few steps before his legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor, his knees colliding with the metal with a hollow thud.

Instead of getting up, Ryou just gave in and burst into tears. He wrapped his arms around himself, but that offered little comfort. He rocked back and forth, clutching his own arms as if to reassure himself that he was still there.

_I don't get my old life or my new life. I get none at all. _

Akefia watched this with mild disgust. After about ten minutes of pathetic sobbing, he was thoroughly fed up. He didn't intend to sit here listening to his yadonushi crying over nothing more important than the fact he had _died. _

Pffft. _There are much more important things to think about._

Still, somewhere inside himself, he felt a slight twinge of pity. Ryou was truly distraught, that was obvious.

At length, Ryou stopped crying. He wiped his damp cheeks with the back of his hand, and wiped his now damp hands on his shirt, but remained hunched pathetically on the floor.

Akefia wondered briefly whether he'd completely lost it.

"Are you quite finished?"

Ryou jumped and looked over his shoulder. He'd forgotten the Thief was there. But there he was, looking as grouchy as usual.

"Yes." Ryou mumbled defiantly as he stood shakily. He concluded that the Thief couldn't hurt him now he was...a spirit.

"Well, let's go then. It gets pretty damn cold in here at night."

"Us?" The idea that the Thief would care if he froze was faintly perplexing, as was the idea that they would be going anywhere _together_.

"Obviously. Unlike you, I don't talk to cats."

The Thief sat up abruptly, and the cat leapt off his stomach with an annoyed hiss. It strutted over to Ryou and began rubbing itself against his leg.

"Someone's changed their tune," Ryou said, smiling weakly down at it. It mewed at him, blinking its big amber eyes.

"Oh, so I get yelled at, but the cat, on the other hand, gets special treatment." Akefia scowled.

"That's right, _Thief_. That's exactly right," Ryou said coldly, bending down to pick the cat up. He cradled it like a baby, and it purred for him.

"Kiss-ass," declared Akefia before storming off. "Maybe I should leave you two alone."

"Should we follow him?" Ryou asked the cat – or more accurately, cooed. It nodded. Ryou wrinkled his nose. "Well, only if we must."

Ryou's legs should have been aching from his chasing the cat around beforehand, but he found that they weren't. _Maybe that's just what being a spirit means, _Ryou thought as he followed the Thief's billowing red cape around corners and through doorways. _You don't get tired and you get to talk to cats._

It was a shallow thought, but it kept Ryou from falling apart. For now, anyway.

* * *

After a short while the Thief stopped abruptly at the foot of a huge spiral staircase which seemed to hang magically in the air. Ryou craned his neck to see the very top; the stairs seemed to stretch on forever into the sky.

"Quit gawping. Let's go." The Thief rubbed at his neck, as though it was hurting him. Ryou followed him up the stairs, watching the sun quite literally shrink.

"What's up with the sun?" Ryou asked. He wasn't keen on asking the Thief questions, but his curiosity stamped out his pride.

"It's not the sun. It's just a light. It goes out at night, and comes on whenever it feels like it. The weather here isn't like the weather on Earth. It's much worse."

The boy nodded as if he understood, but Akefia could tell that he didn't. He wasn't surprised. He'd had 5000 years to learn about what went on here, but the boy had had very little time. A couple of hours, maybe. Time moved differently here, but in any case, he hadn't had long.

"Where exactly is 'here'?"

"You already know. You just don't want to believe it."

Ryou looked into the distance, as if trying to figure it out. Akefia rolled his eyes.

"Yadonushi. Don't pretend to be ignorant when you aren't."

"The first thing that comes to mind...is the Ring." Ryou almost choked over the word.

To think that only hours before, he almost hadn't worn it. Almost hadn't pulled the battered cord over his neck and watched the golden Ring settle against his chest.

"Funny. That's the first thing that came to mine too."

The Thief slowed as they finally arrived at the first Door, which was balanced precariously on the steps; the metal of the floor seemed to be climbing its way around the door, wrapping its frame with tendrils of gold.

Ryou recognised the plain, off white door with a painful twist in his stomach. He'd been sealed behind it many times. A surge of unpleasant memories swelled inside his head, but he ignored them, preferring not to think about _that_. 'That' being the less than happy time Ryou had spent locked up inside his own soul room, begging for release.

One time he was in there for so long that by the time he got out, he couldn't walk.

"Relax. I'm not going to lock you up," Akefia said, noticing the fearful expression on the boy's face as he faced what had been the door of his cell. Ryou looked up at him, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"You want something, don't you?" Ryou accused

"Ouch. As a matter of fact, I don't."

"Well, why are you being...nice?" he asked.

Akefia thought for a moment. "Why shouldn't I be?"

"I don't know...It's not like you."

"Hah." The Thief laughed coldly, his eyes taking on an unpleasant hard quality. "You know nothing about me."

Ryou looked away, not liking his tone and not liking being wrong.

"Maybe I don't..." He walked towards the door of his soul room. Close up, it wasn't as clean as it appeared from far away. It was smudged with greyish handprints and some of the paint had been scraped off, as if the door had been viciously scratched.

"I suppose that's what my soul looks like," Ryou muttered, laughing humourlessly as he ran a finger over one of the scratches. "Smudgy and scratched and _ruined_."

"Goodnight, Yadonushi. Or should I say 'Rest in Peace'?" he heard the Thief say. He didn't answer.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryou saw the Thief walk away, continuing up the stairs. He placed a hand on the door handle, the cold metal numbing his hand.

"And by the way..."

Ryou jumped and turned, expecting to see the Thief behind him. There was nothing. Only a convoluted gold landscape, seemingly void of life and the last remnant spark of the 'sun' flickering in the sky.

"...call me Akefia."

Ryou looked round warily.

"...Fine." he said at length, partly to himself and partly to any Thief who might have been listening.

A low laugh, and then the faint sound of a door closing. Ryou exhaled heavily, glad he was no longer being spied on.

He waited a while before opening the door to his soul room. It creaked, loud in the silence of the Ring. Ryou hated admitting it, but he was afraid of what he might find. He remembered what had happened before.

Days spent clawing at the bare walls or locked up in spaces so small he could barely breathe, hearing the Thief laughing at him, taunting him from the outside until all he could remember were the cruel words, running through his head and his own faltering heartbeat.

Ryou slipped into his soul room, deciding that nothing he found could possibly be worse than what had happened in the past. It was hardly a comforting thought.

* * *

As he looked around the room, he remembered. The worst thing about his soul room was its truth. How it was him, and nobody else. It showed Ryou himself, and after spending most of your life being someone else, that was hard.

It was like a bedroom that you couldn't tidy. All the things you wanted to hide laid out for all to see.

_Come one, come all. See the turmoil and mess that is Ryou Bakura! _

There was a quiet, almost inaudible thump. Ryou turned, his heart set pounding once again. He saw a stack of shelves attached clumsily to the wall. On them sat rows of dolls. Dozens of button eyes stared blankly at him, and as Ryou stared back, he remembered how much he hated them.

His mind had taken people, stitched them up and laid them out so he would look at them and feel _guilty_.

Scanning the shelves, he saw a little Anzu, a little Yuugi, a Yami, a Marik and even, Ryou noted with mild revulsion, himself. His doll stared out mournfully, one arm hanging limply, slumped pathetically on the very edge of the shelf. Ryou stepped a little closer and took it down carefully, making sure the other dolls didn't topple. He noted that one of its eyes was hanging off.

_Poor Little Ryou. You're half blind,_ he thought. _Who did this to you, eh? _

He pressed the button back into its original position, in the little hollow of its stuffed head, which tilted slightly to the side, as if watching him and trying to figure him out. Ryou sighed sadly and smoothed its white wool hair, letting the button drop.

_We're going to be seeing a lot more of each other now. Maybe you'll figure me out eventually._

He walked across the room to where a small bed (his bed) stood in the corner. Its bedclothes were crumpled as if someone had just risen from it, yawning and stretching, ready to live another day. Ryou flopped down on it, still clutching the doll. He felt something lumpy under his pillow, and reaching his hand under, he felt, with surprise, what he knew was another doll. Pulling it out, he saw who it was, and laughed dryly.

"Hello, _Akefia_," he heard himself sneer, greeting the rag doll in a voice quite unlike his. However, something about this doll was different. It was sad. Ryou traced the scar on the dolls face, and noted the patches on its arms, and on the bottom of its little feet. He then glanced to his own doll. It too was patched and dirty, but something about Little Akefia was just pathetic.

Ryou noticed suddenly that its mouth had been stitched over, black thread zigzagging back and forth, as though silencing it in the most vicious way possible, as if its little mouth would open and start spilling secrets like water. Ryou shuddered lightly. _How creepy._

He stretched out and placed both the dolls on the wooden chair next to his bed. They slumped down slightly, their two stuffed heads leaning against each other, four dull buttons staring at him. Almost accusingly.

_You're missing something, Yadonushi._

_Come on, Me! Figure it out. _

Ryou shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He'd been doing that a lot today.

_I'd better go to sleep, before I start __**talking **__to them._

Besides, the bed was familiar and comfortable. He vaguely considered trying to find some pyjamas, but dismissed the idea out of pure laziness.

As his eyes closed, he thought he saw the Akefia doll twitch.

He dreamt about dolls that night.

* * *

Upstairs, leaning against the dust-coloured wall in his own soul room, Akefia rubbed his neck. The pain had been there all day, throbbing lightly. Occasionally it would prickle and Akefia would have to fight to keep his face from betraying him. But now, out sight and earshot of his host, he could do what he liked.

The _ex_-host he'd never expected to see again.

Not in a million years.

Akefia groaned, partly from the pain, and partly at his own stupidity.

_Of course he would come back... _

_**It **__wasn't going to give up._

_And it's partly my fault. _

The pain seared again, stronger this time. He felt something dig at his consciousness.

_Not again... _

"_I wouldn't have to keep coming if you would be a good thief and do as I say...think as I say...be as I say." _

Akefia heard a sort of snarl come out of his own mouth. He pressed a hand hard to his neck, digging his nails in as he hissed in agony.

"_This is what you get..."_ it said gleefully. Akefia felt his knees buckle and he slid to the ground.

"G-go...away. I...haven't done...anything!"

"_Exactly. You're such a meanie to poor little Ryou. But that's not what we want...is it?" _

Akefia snarled and twisted as the pain increased, becoming almost unbearable. He slumped against the cold wall, panting, struggling to focus on his oppressor.

Laughter.

A cold nail lightly tracing his jaw.

The pain crawled down his spine, agonisingly slow. Akefia's back arched as he struggled to breathe under the onslaught. He fell sideways and curled into a foetal position, twitching, gasping, the pain filling every fibre of his being. He heard himself moan.

"_Oh, you filthy thing. This is why you're my favourite. You're the only Real one, except for Ryou. And I can guarantee..."_ the voice slipped down into a whisper, _"...he wouldn't last as long as you." _

"Do what you like." It took a herculean effort to form this coherent sentence.

"_Don't worry, I will. But you know what will happen if you do wrong again..." _

The pain was gradually fading, as was the voice, and Akefia felt all his muscles scream in protest as he sat up, feeling sweat run down his neck.

"_Who knows?"_ The voice was so faint it was barely a whisper. _"I may find Ryou a worthy replacement."_

Akefia shook his head, eyes dull. The pain had all but faded, but his heart was pounding, and with each thump his ribs ached, and with each movement, his arms and legs cramped, and his mind clouded over.

_This is becoming a frighteningly common occurrence. And it's only going to get worse..._

But he wasn't going to think about that now. Now all he wanted was to sleep. Sleep and forget.

* * *

**Reviews? You know you love me. Or the fic. Or not... whatever.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Kal277 xx **


	3. Meet and Greet

**It's finally done! All I can do is apologise for the ridiculously long wait. **

**But here we are. :D**

* * *

There is only so long you can wait for something.

Ryou wasn't quite sure how long he had been sitting cross-legged in the middle of his soul room, but knew it was too long. The room was windowless and hot. It reminded Ryou of the summer; the long, languid days when heat hazes blur the horizon and even opening an eye is just too much _effort_.

Also, the dolls had moved.

They'd returned to the shelves while Ryou was sleeping, and he found this more than a little disturbing. Nothing could get into his soul room and nothing could get out without him knowing about it. That wasn't to say that nothing could get in at all, but when the Thief had prised his way into Ryou's soul room he'd felt it like he'd have felt a flesh wound, so the silent shifting of the rag dolls sent a shiver down his spine.

Still, there was no time to dwell on that. Ryou had other things to think about. More important, more tangible things.

For example, the Thief.

No, wait.

Akefia.

Ryou didn't know quite what to make of him. On the surface, he appeared to have changed, but Ryou wasn't so naive as to think that he could be trusted.

He had made that mistake before.

* * *

As Ryou opened the door, the sunlight was dazzling; it shimmered and danced on the golden floor, making it look liquid and alive. But there was always that lingering, oppressive silence. No distant babble of voices, no barely audible hum of cars. Not even the rustle of the wind in dry barren trees.

"It's so empty," Ryou mused, as he looked over the twists and arches, the luminous scintillating yellow, crouched down and leaning over the very edge of the stairs. "How can it be so emp-"

"Talking to yourself-"

Ryou jerked backwards onto the relative safety of his backside.

"Is the first sign of madness, I know! Funny, I've been told that a lot in my time." Ryou said furiously. Inside, his heart was hammering. Heat rushed to his face.

_God-damn Thief. Sneaking up on me like that, I almost fell... _

"Put those claws away. I'm trying my best here," Akefia paused, then smiled wickedly. "I could have pushed-"

"You wouldn't have."

_Gods, don't remind me how stupidly trusting I am! _

"That's hardly the point. It was a possibility. It's even more of a possibility now that you've irritated me."

"Your social skills aren't particularly impressive." Ryou snapped.

"I'm a 5000 year old dead tomb robber, under and over. I shouldn't have need for social skills. Or any skills, for that matter."

The man's hair was bright, bone white in the sunlight, his scar dark and ugly. Ryou felt a flicker of revulsion in his stomach. He was, in effect, talking to a corpse.

"You'll get no sympathy from me. I'm dead too, remember? And everyone I know is living on and on." His voice was detached as he said this; this was so unfair it hurt.

"I've been alone for a lot longer than you, Ryou. Count yourself lucky."

Ryou suddenly felt that he had crossed some invisible line into the realms of the deeply personal. Maybe it was the uncharacteristic emotion lacing Akefia's voice that gave it away; in any case, he didn't say anything.

"Anyway, it's about time you showed. I was waiting for you."

"Why?"

"We have things to do." Akefia turned and walked away. Ryou stayed put.

"What if I don't want to?"

"You don't want to meet the neighbours?" Akefia asked, turning his head to look at Ryou with wicked, dancing eyes.

"What neighbours?"

"I thought you didn't want to. That's fine. Stay here if you like."

_There he goes again. Pulling my strings and loving every second. _

"No. I want to meet them."

"I suspected as much. You aren't the misanthropic type, are you?" He said, laughter lacing his voice.

"What's funny?" Ryou asked haughtily, scowling.

"Nothing. Calm yourself, Ryou. There's no need to be so defensive."

_Damn it._

Ryou stood up. He felt much less vulnerable than when he'd been sitting at the Thief's feet, as if in desperate prayer. A thought bounced to the front of his mind as they walked off, down the stairs, not so much together as in line.

"Why do you call me Ryou?"

He didn't look round, which was mildly annoying. "Because that's your name."

"No-one calls me Ryou."

"Really?" Akefia's disbelief was obvious.

Well, it was a white lie. Of sorts. Yuugi and his father called him Ryou.

"Since when did you care about my name?"

"You do like to fight, don't you?"

"No! You just..."

Akefia turned to him, irritated. "Oh, whisht."

Ryou stopped suddenly, annoyed at being hushed and simultaneously disturbed at the realisation that the Thief was right. He did like to fight. He was acting like a petulant child. Because the last thing he wanted was to fall back into that trust. That old trust. The trust that had almost gotten him killed on many occasions.

Ryou tried to compose himself, fighting his mixed emotions as he caught up with the man in front of him.

"So," he said conversationally, as they walked across an elegant golden bridge "How long exactly...?"

"Have I been in here?" Akefia finished amusedly.

"Well...yes."

"5021 years, 12 days, 4 hours, 32 minutes and 9 seconds."

"Wow. You actually counted?" Ryou blurted, without thinking. He flushed, realising that as well as being supremely insensitive, he now sounded like a complete idiot.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Akefia said, turning sharply to head through a thin fissure in the gold. Ryou followed, with a strong sense of déjà vu. "It's subconscious."

"Hmm." Ryou's stomach flipped at the idea of counting for so long that it became automatic.

* * *

"Here we are. The capital city, the centre of commerce, the only town in the Ring."

A tiny village had risen out of nowhere, and was now standing, fully sized, in front of Ryou. There was a gentle patter of footsteps in the distance, the sound of work, movement, human movement. The smell of woodsmoke drifted up the gold paved streets.

It was glorious.

Ryou ran. He ran straight through. He wanted to see a person, so he could feel alive once more.

"What's the hurry? They aren't good company." Akefia called

"What, worse than you?" Ryou called back, delirious happiness making him reckless. His heart felt ready to burst. He span in a delighted circle, like a small child with the greatest gift in the world, smiling painfully wide. Then he ran into someone and went crashing to the ground.

Akefia approached watchfully. He knew.

"Oh, God, sorry! Are you okay?" Ryou scrambled to his feet, picking up the box he'd knocked from the young woman's hands. She stood there, staring at the spot where it had fallen, silent.

Silent.

A cold realisation dawned on Ryou.

There were no voices. No crying children. No distant, drifting lullaby.

These aren't like me.

Us.

Heart bouncing hollowly, Ryou looked to the woman. She was wearing a greyish scarf over her head, but beneath that, where her eyes should have been, were blackish, bruised hollows. Her dark skin had a dusty covering, as though it had been forgotten; her once pretty face was slack and disengaged.

Akefia heard Ryou's horrified yelp from a few metres away.

"Oh my God. Oh, God." Ryou backed away, shaking. The woman watched him – no, looked through him – before turning around and walking back to where she'd come.

"I probably should have warned you about that." Akefia said carelessly, stepping up behind him.

"What is wrong with you?" Ryou yelled, his face ashen. Akefia saw how he looked straight to his eyes; probably checking that they were still there.

"You wanted to meet them."

"I thought they were people! They're horrible. Creepy."

_And a little too similar to the dolls for my liking._

"Let me show you something."

"No! God no. For all I know, you'll try to gouge my eyes out!" The boy was acting manic now, like he was torn between running and collapsing on the spot.

"I didn't do that." Akefia said disgustedly. "What good would it do me? Contrary to popular belief, I'm not to blame for everything."

"Close enough." Ryou choked. He felt like crying.

"Come on. Don't be scared. They aren't going to hurt you."

"I don't care. I want to go home!" He wrung his hands as if he wanted to pull them apart, and shrieked when a small child ran past him, pushing with little dusty hands. "Get away from me!"

"Gods above, calm down!"

"No! Oh my God." Ryou wailed, clutching at himself as though the child's touch had burned.

"For fuck's sake, this is my village!"

Akefia's words hit him like a fist in the gut. They knocked out the hysteria, for sure. Ryou froze, pieces falling into place.

"You know these..."

"People." Akefia growled, folding his arms.

"So they just...they are..."

"You know how I got here, right?"

"Yes. After the Ceremonial Duel. You...sacrificed yourself."

"Close enough."

"That doesn't explain how they got here."

"Come with me." He strode off, purposeful for the first time since they'd met. Ryou followed, the fear of the hollow people still enough to make him shiver.

Towards the edge of the village, a lonely house stood. Short, square with crumbling sandstone walls and a wooden roof, dried and bleached grey by the sun. Outside the house, three children were playing. Two boys and a girl, all with the same long black hair. Ryou walked past them feeling the same as one does driving past a road accident – desperate to see, but certain that when you did see, you would wish you hadn't.

A few lonely pieces of sand brushed over the gleaming floor around the house as Akefia stopped next to it. He beckoned to Ryou, and pointed through the open window.

The tiny shack was full of people. A woman sat on a low bed, cradling a young child whose legs swung ceaselessly. Two sat against the wall, another on a stool, sewing.

"Six?"

"There are two in the backroom, and three in the town."

"Eleven?"

"I was the youngest of a dozen. I was the best and worst of the dozen."

Ryou couldn't tear his eyes away. The family stared into space, not seeing that their youngest member was right there with them.

"How did you... how did they...were you poor?"

"What do you think?" Akefia snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I don't know."

"My father was a thief. My oldest brother was a blacksmith. I think. I can't really remember. I never paid much attention anyway. So yes, we were poor. Blacksmiths and thieves can't feed fourteen with money to spare."

"I still can't get over how many of you there were." Ryou said, looking at Akefia with new admiration.

_Or how many people you lost when you died._

Ryou frowned, suddenly noticing something.

"Akefia, how old were you when you...died?"

"Thank you for sparing my feelings on the subject."

"Sorry. I didn't think you'd mind. I didn't think death was important to you."

"I don't, and it isn't. I was 20."

"That means that these children can't be your brothers and sisters."

"Wrong." Akefia smiled wanly.

"They were already here."

* * *

"My father saw early on that I was the best. I don't believe for one minute that he liked the idea, but it was true. My siblings were fairly mediocre; I was not. I was intelligent, strong and fearless. I was cruel too, but that didn't matter. I was the only one with white hair; my father hated me for it. His father had had white hair, and he had been the Thief King. My father was just the one who inherited his legacy, his one disappointing son."

"That must have been hard."

"Not really. He was lucky to get anything at all. He wasn't even a very good thief. He had no _ambition."_ Akefia frowned. "You have to be ambitious, or the fear and criminality will consume you from the inside out."

Ryou saw it.

* * *

_The dark skinned, too-thin wreck of a man, hands trembling and face scored with stress lines, stands in front of the fire, which has sunk to ashes. His wife sighs heavily. _

"_What's wrong with you this time?"_

"_That child. Spawn of demons, curse him." He says, throwing his arms down to his sides, his red cloak falling around his elbows. Outside, a night bird screeches and the wind rattles the door on its hinges. Out there, somewhere, runs the youngest of the couple's twelve children._

_The young woman stands alongside him, torn. She wants to protect her baby from the verbal onslaught, but feels a sliver of truth amongst the bitterness._

"_You must teach him his place."_

"_You think I haven't tried? I've beaten him till I could not lift my arm. I've shouted at him. I've locked him up. He continues to dance beyond my hands. Laughing at me."_

"_Don't be so absurd. He's a child. He is yet to learn about life. He can still be taught!" _

"_If we ever manage to catch him for long enough."_

"_He is constantly leaping into the fire. One day he will be burnt, and that will be lesson enough." His wife says softly, taking his hand. _

"_It will take more than fire to bring him down." The man says wretchedly. "I don't want to be there when he falls."_

* * *

"My parents decided that not my older brothers but I would inherit everything. What little gold there was, the house and the title. I think that, rather than being an inheritance, it was intended to hold be back. To give me a place. So they could guarantee my safety and cull my recklessness."

"Your brothers and sisters must have been furious."

"They didn't dispute it. They carried blandly on. If anything, it made them like me more." He said, a hint of nostalgic laughter around his voice.

"They used to call me 'Touzie'. Short for Touzouko. Thief King. Because they knew that I was the one."

Ryou looked once more at the people in the house. He tried to imagine the silver-haired child sitting at his mother's feet, and couldn't.

_He grew up with these. He probably played with them. He shared a bedroom with them. Until they died. _

_All of them._

"What was it?"

"What was what?" He said distantly, eyes glazed.

"What was it that killed them?"

The look in his eyes could have frightened a stronger man than Ryou. It was the look of a person dead inside.

"I don't want to remember."

* * *

_Hoarse shouting and the sound of metal on metal on rock on flesh on bone._

_The white heat of flames._

_And all over it, the ceaseless screaming of the dying and death and the dead and pain._

_The child wished that he were dead, that he could perish in the flames. _

_He wished that fire was enough._

* * *

"I'm sorry."

"Apologies won't make it better. Nothing can change what's past."

Tears pricking behind his eyes, Ryou looked away. Down and away.

_How much pain is it possible to feel for the person who ruined your life? _

"Your empathy amazes me," Akefia said quietly "But I'm sure that underneath the tears you want to rip my insides out."

"I know how it feels. To lose someone...like that."

"You do?" Akefia asked, his face suddenly youthful with surprise. Ryou felt a surge of endearment towards this particular face. While wearing it, Akefia looked anything but dead.

"You knew that. The Ring was around then." Ryou reminded him. He distinctly remembered the Thief's presence after the accident – it was the only time he'd ever been truly thankful for it.

"Well, actually..." Akefia paused mid sentence, as if interrupted. His hand twitched towards his neck.

"Are you alright?" Ryou frowned concernedly; Akefia's face was tight with pain.

"I'm fine." Akefia said shortly, looking around him. Ryou tried to follow his gaze, seeing nothing but the village, and the eyeless people. As eerie as they were, they weren't an obvious threat.

_So why does he look so...on edge?_

"Are you...sure?"

"We have to go." The thief said tersely, straightening up. He reached out, took hold of Ryou's wrist and began to pull him away from the village.

"Wait! Where are we going?" Ryou yelped indignantly. He didn't dare fight the unwanted grip of Akefia's hand, but that didn't mean he liked it.

"Back to our soul rooms. _Now_." He quickened his pace as they left the houses behind them, slipping into the shadows of the golden arches and fissures.

_Something is not right here._

"What's wrong with you? What's going on?" Ryou pressed, pulling away.

"Don't fight me, damn you." Akefia hissed furiously, holding tighter. "I'm trying to he-"

There was a quiet thud behind them. Ryou froze in terror.

"Shit." Akefia released Ryou's arm and turned to the sound. It was a few seconds before Ryou dared follow suit.

* * *

For a moment, Ryou thought it was himself.

Then he recognised it.

The man that looked so like him, while not resembling him at all.

Seven years past, and that man was not a minute older. But his possession had aged Ryou beyond his years. The spirit that had walked with his legs, seen what wasn't his to see and stained his child's hands with blood.

'Bakura'.

Akefia wasn't his enemy here. Akefia wasn't the danger here. The thief was all that stood between him, and it.

Ryou was inexpressibly grateful for that.

"Oh, look who it is," Akefia said scathingly. "I wondered how long it would take you to smell the new blood."

"And I wondered how long it would take you to find a new ass to lick." The spirit drawled in return. "Clearly, not long at all."

It approached slowly, stepping deliberately.

"Come any closer, and I will make you pay." Akefia warned.

Surprisingly, it stopped dead, and turned to Ryou, stood behind Akefia and transfixed in terrified wonder.

"Salutations, Ryou."

That voice. That's the voice. That's the one who took my body.

Ryou took a step backwards, instinctively clutching Akefia's arm. The other man didn't respond, too preoccupied with the spirit facing him.

"What do you want, parasite?"

"Nothing of yours." Its maroon eyes were fixed on Ryou's face, watching him intently. Ryou glanced up and flinched. The force of the gaze was frightening; it was almost as if the spirit was trying to tell him something.

This time Akefia noticed. In a split second, he had thrown Ryou off and had the spirit in his grip, one hand at his throat, the other wrapped in his wild silver hair. He gave a vicious tug, and the other spirit laughed hollowly.

"Temper."

"Look at him like that again, and I'll make you wish you hadn't."

Akefia gave the spirit a look of cold revulsion, as if touching him was repulsive.

"Bastard." It said lowly, glaring at the floor.

"You don't even have the bottle to look me in the eye." Akefia said, a cruel amusement lacing his voice. "Not so big now, are you?"

From his position on the floor, Ryou couldn't see the expression of the spirit morph into one of quiet desperation.

"Ryou."

"Don't fucking talk to him." Akefia spat, narrowing his eyes. The spirit snarled grotesquely in reply.

"What do you want?" Ryou whispered fearfully. Akefia turned his head, the spirit limp in his chokehold.

"Don't talk to him. He's trying to hurt you."

"Give him a choice. Or are you going to force him, like you a-" The spirits sentence was cut short when Akefia threw him hard onto the ground and stood in front of Ryou, protective.

"What choice? Me or you? I wonder which he'd rather have."

"Ask him." The spirit said, raising itself onto its knees. It looked to Ryou, imploring.

"Of course I won't. I don't need to."

The spirit leered in Akefia's general direction. "How sweet. You've so many faces, Akefia, I don't know which one to look at."

"Shut up and move along."

It ignored him, averting its crimson eyes to Ryou.

Ryou felt his skin crawl, fear clawing inside his chest. The spirit's ardent gaze was deeply disturbing.

"Just...go." he managed, throat constricting. He could hear it all over again.

_Fight me, Ryou. I'm sure you'll win._

_Black, windowless rooms, echoing with the mindless taunting. He fought, while the spirit laughed and laughed._

_Fight on._

He turned away, expecting some attack.

"What?" came the voice, quavered with surprise.

"Go away. I...don't want you here."

"You heard him! Get out. You got what you wanted." Akefia's commands were strong and passionate to his feeble requests.

The spirit looked from the Thief to the boy, as if trying to gauge the connection between them.

"That's fine. I'll go." He said resignedly, standing. He was tall and slender, much like Ryou, only perhaps a little thinner; his face was angular and harsh while Ryou's was softened with youth. The spirits mouth cut a hard, disapproving line from side to side as he moved to walk away.

"Be careful who you trust, child."

His eyes caught Ryou's, at once bitter and melancholy, and then he was gone, like ghosts at dawn.

* * *

Some time later, when the 'sun' had shrunk to little more than a speck and the shadows stretched out to meet each other like eager fingers, Ryou and Akefia sat down on the stairs.

"He isn't a person."

"What is he then?"

"A spirit. A wandering spirit."

"So he was never a person?"

"Never. I'm sure of it."

"He looks like me."

"In the same way a cast looks like the object it was made from. He doesn't have a form of his own, so he copies."

Ryou frowned, casting shadows over his pale skin. "What's he doing here?"

"I suppose he was attracted to the spiritual energy. He's been here since I have."

"Ah." Ryou nodded. He'd read about things like this; his interest in the occult was coming in useful, at last.

"You thought it was me, didn't you? Torturing you. Playing with your soul." Akefia said. Ryou felt himself cringe.

"I... I didn't understand. I didn't know there were two of you."

"I suppose you wouldn't."

"Why would he do those things, though?"

"Who knows? He hates humans for being human when he can never be."

"What's so brilliant about being human?" Ryou said bitterly. "We just destroy ourselves."

Akefia turned to him. "You're much too young to be thinking like that."

"I'm not so young."

"You're really telling that to _me_?"

"_He_ called me 'child'."

Akefia gazed broodingly into the distance, bringing his knees up under his chin. "You are one."

"Whatever." Ryou muttered.

They fell silent, both watching the gold fill with black as the 'sun' shrank ever smaller. When the light had all but faded, Akefia stood gracefully, stretching.

"Well, since we're done here, I'm going to bed."

"Good idea." Ryou looked up and met the Thief's eye; they were warmer than Ryou had ever seen them.

After a moment, he looked away, embarrassed.

"You should come too."

"That was my plan." Ryou affirmed. He certainly didn't want to be left out on his own, especially since their surprise run in with 'Bakura'.

"Good. Otherwise something might catch you."

"I'm sure whatever's out here wouldn't be all that interested in me."

"You'd be surprised." Akefia gave Ryou a knowing smile, darkened by what he knew but wouldn't share.

* * *

They parted on that, and from a nearby ledge, the spirit 'Bakura' watched balefully.

"Wrong. You're both wrong." He murmured, perfectly still.

He watched the two figures open two doors – one white, one brown. He watched them disappear from view. The spirit knew what was behind both of those doors, and the knowledge was heavy.

"We're not done here, Touzouko and Ryou."

He leaned forward, his skeletal hands curled, fathomless eyes fixed on the closed doors.

"You aren't safe yet."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it, I'm still not entirely sure about it.**

**Reviews? **

**Kal277 x**


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